Thursday, January 28, 2010

Myths and Legends: Jason and Medea

Jason and Medea. To find out more about Medea, see this Wikipedia article: link; for information about the image: image source.

This shows the tragic and violent conclusion of the relationship between the hero Jason and the Colchian princess Medea. In this painting by Charles André van Loo, you can see the moment when Medea has slain her two children, and Jason has now discovered their bodies. Although there are other versions of the story, Euripides' play Medea tells us that Medea did indeed kill her own children and then fled in a golden chariot drawn by dragons; in the painting, they look more like snakes, as you can see in this detail: